Yugoslavia: 52 Bodies Exhumed In Serbia

Sabac, Yugoslavia; 4 December 2002 (RFE/RL) -- The remains of 52 unidentified bodies presumed to be Croatian and Serbian victims of the 1990s wars in the former Yugoslavia have been exhumed in Serbia. Ljubomir Sljukic, a Sabac district magistrate, said the exhumations of the bodies started on 25 November and that two more bodies in the town of Loznica would be exhumed soon.

The bodies were apparently pulled between 1991 and 1995 from the Drina and Sava rivers, which form the borders between Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, and buried at cemeteries in Sabac and six nearby villages.

Sljukic said DNA samples had been taken from the bodies to help identify the victims.

Meanwhile, the Yugoslav Justice Ministry has issued arrest warrants for two Bosnian Serbs accused of war crimes. The Tanjug news agency reported that warrants have been issued for Ljubisa Beara and Vujadin Popovic, both wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Popovic and Beara were in charge of prisoners in Srebrenica, where thousands of Muslims were executed in 1995.